K11 Faulty Electrics

[MicraFish]

I'm just wondering if anyone could help diagnose what the electrical problems mean in my car? I have a 1993 L reg 1.0l LX K11 Micra

Several things are going wrong -
1) The wipers no longer have the intermittent speed, just the two faster speeds;
2) The clock under the temperature gauge on the left is totally blank, no digits are showing;
3) The heater blower only works on the fourth notch;
4) My reverse light comes on intermittently;
5) One of my numberplate lights decides to turn off and on as it pleases.

Now, be honest, are my car's electrics knackered? My dad- whos worked his lifetime around cars- thinks there's nothing seriously wrong, but there's just too many problems to be just a little quirk now. It's frustrating.
Is there even something I can do to fix these problems?

I just simply don't want to do anything to this car - modify or otherwise - if there's somethign terminally wrong.
Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks, Micrafish

 

[Retepetsir]

1) Not sure about the wipers
2) May just be faulty/loose connection, the bulb that lights them up does tend to blow though.
3) A common problem, the resistor card for the blower motor fails, only enabling max power. The easiest option is to get a replacement resistor card from your local scrappy. Its located under the glovebox, near the wheel arch/bulkhead soundproofing. 2 screws and one cable to unplug and you can remove it!
4) Common problem again, the sensor in the gearbox tends to be dodgy on some K11's, my mums has always had this problem and we have never managed to fix it. Don't worry about it though as its not an MOT failure, no light is needed.
5) No idea, but possibly a dodgy bulb/connection, trying replacing the bulb

 

[Craig]

1) The wipers no longer have the intermittent speed, just the two faster speeds;
This could be two things - either the module in the engine bay, or the actual switch itself, I've had one apart and it is fairly simple to see if it is broken or not ust be carefule not to let the spring ping off into infinity.

4) My reverse light comes on intermittently;
Check the earth strap on the gearbox - on a few acars I hav seen that this has been disconnected for some reason.

5) One of my numberplate lights decides to turn off and on as it pleases.
Quite possibly a dodgy earth again.

 

[pollyp]

3) the resistance tracks on my fan card for speeds 1-3 used to be burnt/corroded out hence only speed 4 works.

I fixed it by simply taking out the card,
sand the burnt out area a tiny bit till the tracks exposed,
clean up the card surfaces with isopropyl alchohol from Maplins,
then re-establish the connection by carefully painting conductive silver paint with fine brush over the track,
leave dry, reinstall and hey presto.

 

[curtis]

 

[MicraFish]

Wooo posting at work!

*ahem*

Thanks for your suggestions, peeps :grinning: so my car can be fixed? It's not entirely dead?

Craig - With the wipers, can I replace the module to get them working properly again? Will that do it?
Retepetsir - The backlight is working fine on the clock display, would I just need to fiddle with the connection to get it going again then?

So basically, if I just check the earths on my car's wiring loom, it might reveal the problems?

Thanks all!

 

[Craig]

It depends waht is broken - I believe that there is an earth on the module - possilby this is faulty- is there any odd play in the indicator stalk? That is wat I think is probably wrong.
Craoig

 

[quickdraw]

Sounds like an earth problem for pretty much everything!

You might find if you look in a haynes manual then a couple of them may actually rtun off the same earthing signal, so could jut be a loose/broke connection causing the rest to be at fault!

In fairness, none of them are major parts, they are all accessories, so each part can easily be replaced with simple scrap yard hunting, if it isnt an earthing/wiring fault.

Q

 

[Ian]

I know the clock goes off when a fuse blows, i think its on the same fuse as the interior light, does this still work?

 

[MicraFish]

No, I believe the interior light is fine - I did originally think it was a fuse though!
I'll have a look through the Haynes manual tonight, see if I can find any answers to the earthing problem that it could be!

Cheers chucks!

 

[Natsumo]

I realize i'm digging up a bit of a relic in replying to this, but given that the thread covers common faults i'd like to share some input on repairing them yourself.

1) The wipers no longer have the intermittent speed, just the two faster speeds;
This is usually down to 'dried' solder joints in the controller box, lift up the hood and you'll find a small black box at the back of the engine bay, near the top just to the right of the middle, disconnect the cable and flick out the black capped end (same end the cable connects to), once out you can slide out the PCB board, check all solder joints on the back of the card (not component side), resolder any that have tiny cracks in the solder, or have loose component legs sticking through, as well as bridging any small burns in the pcb tracks, it'll then work again.

2) The clock under the temperature gauge on the left is totally blank, no digits are showing;
I had this exact same problem, i removed the dashboard and found some corroded/dodgy joints, resoldering and cleaning up these fixed it.

3) The heater blower only works on the fourth notch;
Pull out your heater card (passenger side footwell), bridge the burn out peice of track with solder (clean up then bridge).

Hope this is helpful.